Hippocampus

Hippocampus
Species information
Eye colour	Varies
Skin colour	Blue, green
Native to	Greece
Distinction	Fish-like appearance Horse-like traits
Ministry of Magic Classification	Beast XXX
Status	Extant

The Hippocampus is a beast with the head and forequarters of a horse, and the tail and hindquarters of a giant fish, making it somewhat similar in appearance to an over-sized seahorse. Although it is generally found in the Mediterranean, a blue roan specimen was caught by Merpeople off the coast of Scotland in 1949 and domesticated.

Hippocampus lay large, semi-transparent eggs through which the young hippocampus, known as a Tadfoal, can be seen.

Etymology

Hippocampus as shown on new Pottermore map

• Hippocampus is derived from the words "hippos" means "horse" and "kampos" means "sea monster".
• The Hippocamp or Hippocampus, like many creatures in the Harry Potter series, is derived from Greek mythology. A Hippocampus-like creature can be seen in the painting "The Chariot of Poseidon" .
• Hippocampus also refers to a major component of the brains of humans and other mammals. It is what enables the conscious short term memory, and was famously removed from Henry Molaison, when a doctor suspected that removing it would cure his epilepsy.

Behind the scenes

The unfinished Hippocampus model

• A Hippocampus model was constructed for the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where it was meant to be painted as an ice sculpture and used for decoration in the Yule Ball scene. However, the resulting model ended up being too large for that purpose, and thus the concept was dropped.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film) (Cut from final film)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (film) (Cut from the film)
• Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World
• Pottermore
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (mentioned only)